Say what nasty things you want about Fry's, and they'll probably be true, but nevertheless I must say that my visit today to the Sunnyvale location was like a kid in a candy store. I hadn't been to an electronics superstore like Fry's in a long time, and there was just so much stuff to enjoy.

My main reason for going was to pick up a cheap router. The old Netopia R9100 that Steve had given me long ago finally seems to have bit the dust and stopped serving DHCP clients. After spending a few days futzing with it, I gave up and bought the cheapest router I found at Fry's, a $49+tax D-Link EBR-2310, which seems to be a fine router.

For some reason, Fumie old (circa 1998, Win98) computer couldn't get an IP from the new one (although before, none of my computers could get an IP from the Netopia), so I think something about it is fried. Sigh. At over 5 minutes per reboot, it's been a horrendously long ordeal to try to get working. I tried throwing in a new ethernet card, but to no avail. Still not working. It wants me to insert the Windows 98 CDROM, which I just threw away on Friday. We're cleaning the house a lot and will throw the compuer away at the end of the month when we return to Kyoto, so I didn't think in a million years that I'd actually need the CD again. Sigh.

Going through all the stuff in our Cupertino house (anyone want to buy a bunch of nice furniture? A nice house?) I realize that I must do something with all the pre-DV home videos we have (VHS and Hi-8). So, while at Fry's, I picked up an ADS Technologies PYRO A/V Link, which converts Composite and S-Video inputs to digital, and connects to the computer via firewire. At $200, it was 4× more expensive than many similar products, but it was the only one Fry's carried that would work with the Mac via Firewire.

I realize now that a fair amount of the cost was probably the Adobe Premier Elements included with it, which itself retails for about $75. Considering that I have both iMovie and the full version of Adobe Premier, I don't need this Elements. Anyone want to buy a copy of Premier Elements for Windows?

I also got some computer “games” (learning things) to try with Anthony. I've never really tried using the computer with Anthony much, other than letting him play with it as an infant (with Baby Safe). We'll see how it goes.

I also picked up -- why Fry's carried this, I don't know -- a “Hooked on Phonics” kit, as it's about time we got moving with Anthony reading. We'll start with it once we get back to Kyoto.

I must say that I found the staff at Fry's, who are much maligned for being clueless, quite helpful most of the time. They indeed had no clue about a product I asked about, but one knew exactly where the bathroom was, and another knew where the routers were sold. Yes, those Fry's staff members are on the ball. /-: